No need of encounters, media has already made Modi's image: Amit Shah

New Delhi, Oct 21: BJP leader Amit Shah, who is in charge of Uttar Pradesh for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls and is a close aide of Narendra Modi, the party's prime ministerial candidate, said in an interview to Headlines Today on Monday that the Congress and some NGOs were trying to defame Modi and him over the Ishraat Jahan fake encounter case. Shah was the home minister of Gujarat when the encounter took place.

'Gujarat fake encounters get more focus because of the Modi factor'

He said fake encounter cases in other states don't get much focus but cases related to Ishraat Jahan get more publicity because Modi is involved in it. He said the government is framing Modi because it can not fight him politically.

'Ram Temple not BJP's poll agenda'

Shah also said during the interview that Ram Temple is not a poll issue for the BJP for the next Lok Sabha polls and it was his personal prayer to expect the temple to come up in Ayodhya.

'People fed up with UPA's policies, BJP will sweep UP'

The leader said that the people were fed up with the UPA's policies and the BJP has emerged a clear alternative before them. "The BJP will sweep the Lok sabha polls in UP," he said. He slammed the Samajwadi Party, which is in power in Uttar Pradesh, saying the latter indulged in appeasement politics only. He asked why the SP government did not act promptly act after the Muzaffarnagar riots in which 50 people were killed and several lost their homes.

'BJP not promoting Modi as a leader of the backward community'

On the question of Modi as a leader of the backward community, Shah said the BJP wasn't projecting him as a leader of the backward community.